OCD
by oathk33p3r
Summary: Her obsession annoyed him.
1. Chapter 1

O C D

**She denied it.**

one

**Warning: Extreme OOCness.**

»o«

"One, two, three, four, five…"

As the girl counted her steps aloud, she left perfectly aligned footsteps etched within the white, fluffy snow. Little snowpeople waved with expressionless, coal eyes with a limp scarf or two blowing in the chilly wind next to little angels imprinted atop of the hidden sidewalk. The weather was a good five degrees and the white droplets of frozen water sparkled like diamonds under the small light penetrating through the heavy clouds; it was simply beautiful.

But Olette wasn't interested in snow. No, they made her cold and wet. Her eyes were narrowed and boring holes into her boots, concentrating on her counting. Each number tumbled out of her lips, synchronized with her careful steps.

"…ten, eleven, twelve."

Olette smiled as she glanced up and saw the bus stop standing in front of her. Perfect.

She cautiously sat on the stiff, cold bench and placed her navy blue school bag to her side. She pried it open and quickly thumbed through her assignments, double-checking, triple-checking, _quadruple_-checking that everything was in there. Olette then took out her agenda and slid her finger down the list, making sure she had completed all the work and had marked it with a red checkmark. Finally satisfied, she let out a deep breath and put her agenda back into her bag. As if this was the cue, the large, yellow bus pulled in and hissed open in front of her.

"Good morning, Olette."

Olette smiled and nodded politely to the beaming bus driver.

"Good morning, cold today."

The bus driver nodded.

"Yeah, it sure is."

"Yes, it is cold today," Olette said again.

The bus started to rumble back onto the slick road as Olette sluggishly made her way to the back seat, where it was least crowded. In her opinion, the bus was too loud for her.

She settled herself down and opened her bag again. Was everything in there?

Olette double-checked through its contents and opened the agenda once more…

…what?

The girl's eyes widened as she checked through her P.E. folder again. Why wasn't there anything in it? Trying not to panic, she flipped her agenda open. 'No P.E. homework.' Biting her lower lip, she looked up and scanned the bus.

There was Seifer, Hayner, Pence…

…and Roxas.

He was in her P.E. class.

Olette timidly reached out her hand and lightly tapped the blonde on the shoulder.

"Hey, did we have homework for P.E.?"

Roxas turned back and raised a brow that clearly said "why are you even talking to me, you freak?"

The girl was obviously oblivious to that.

"What?"

"Did we have homework for P.E.?" she repeated.

"Why would we have homework for P.E.?" he asked as he turned back around to stare out the fogged up window.

Olette blinked at the boy's rudeness and shook her head. He hadn't answered her question. She tapped the boy's arm again.

He turned back, not bothering to cover his annoyance.

"What?"

"Did we have homework for P.E.?" Olette asked slowly.

"I just answered you! Just _leave me alone, ok?_"

The brunette frowned. What was so interesting about staring at a fogged up window? She didn't find it all that interesting. I mean, it was just white, and the town already had enough of that.

Irritated herself, Olette hit Roxas on the arm.

"Ow. What the-" Roxas turned back and his eyes flashed with anger and ignorance. He let out a sigh of exasperation and gritted his teeth.

"Did we have homework for P.E.?"

"NO! I already said that! NO, NO, NO!" Roxas shouted.

The chattering and laughing immediately stopped as Roxas's last 'no' filled up the vehicle.

The blonde stared at his schoolmates and a synthetic smile tugged at his lips. He let out a deliberate laugh as a tinge of red crawled through his cheeks. Roxas sunk deep into his seat and didn't look back at the brunette sitting behind him.

How he hated her and her obsession.

»o«

"Hey, Sora!"

The brunette turned around to see his blond-headed cousin sprint his way down the hall. He waited for him to catch up and raised a brow when he saw that Roxas's eyes were filled with despair and he was covered in snow from head to toe.

"What's up?" Sora asked, looking at him.

Roxas shook his head in disbelief.

"My, gosh. You know that Olette girl?" he panted.

Of course he knew her. Who wouldn't know the famous I-talk-to-myself girl?

"She is _such_ a pain in the neck."

Sora smirked as he made his way through the thick crowd of students. Roxas followed him while complaining his mouth off.

"Dude, I _hate _her. She was checking her bag throughout the whole bus ride and asked me _three _times about whether or not we had homework for P.E. Why the heck would we have homework in _P.E.?!_"

Sora merely shrugged, receiving a fuming glare from his cousin.

"And when we were getting off the bus, she tried squeezing out before me and made me fall!"

Sora merely nodded.

"Well, say something."

The brunette gave him another shrug, which sent Roxas into another fit.

"Oh, my _gosh_. Wouldn't you be heck-a pissed too if you were stared at like some freak yelling "NO, NO, NO?!" and then falling face first onto the snow?!"

Sora laughed.

"You do that all the time, Roxas."

"Man, you suck."

"I love you too, man."

The two split as Sora made his way to geometry and Roxas dragged his feet to the boys' locker room.

He gave Olette his infamous "evil glare" throughout the entire period. He got even more annoyed when he missed the last shot due to Olette standing so close to him. Even during passing period, he didn't fail to shot her one of his mean looks. Sora obviously noticed this and shook his head.

"You're so immature."

The blonde's shoulders sagged as he opened his locker. He never bothered to lock it.

"Shut up."

Roxas pulled out his health binder and slammed his locker shut. As it let out a loud _bang_, a loud scream between a squeak and a sneeze reached his ears. Wincing, he turned around to see Olette digging through her pocket for a tissue. Her emerald eyes were too busy searching through her pocket to notice Roxas. It was surprising that she couldn't feel the boy's cold aura filled with pure enmity.

Sora noticed and nudged his cousin.

"Let's get to class," he said as he pulled him towards their next class together.

Roxas tore his eyes off the girl and briefly nodded.

"Yeah."

The cousins made their separate ways in the small classroom and sat in their seats. The teacher was too busy reading her romance novel to shut up the class as the bell rang above her head.

Olette was late, as usual, for she was obviously digging through her locker, which was stuffed with soap, hand-sanitizers, tissue, and watches.

"I am so sorry, ma'am," Olette gasped as she quickly sat on her chair next to the door.

The English teacher shook her head, her eyes not leaving the fine print of the pages.

"No, not her. That cheap bastard," she mumbled.

The class fell silent.

As if the silence was able to reach through the teacher's brain, she jolted up and let out a small squeak. Embarrassed, she snapped her book shut and gained her posture, standing up.

"Good morning, class. As you can see, winter break is nearing. So," the teacher had a wide grin at this point. "as a holiday gift, I shall let you have partners for your final project! Isn't that just dandy?"

A couple of the kids forced a smile.

"But, as a gift from you to me, I shall choose the teams because you guys give me a headache whenever you come up with your own creative groups."

Roxas grinned; she always assigned the groups in alphabetical order. The blonde turned back in his seat to acknowledge his cousin, for they shared the same surname; Wataya.

All the kids already knew who their partner, but there was confusion when she got to the letter N.

"Oh yeah, it's because of that new girl," people murmured.

Roxas frowned. That meant he was going to be with…

"Olette," the teacher smiled. "Your partner will be Roxas."

The blonde's face fell. His bubble of hatred finally exploded, leaving him thoughtless and emotionless. He stared at Olette with blank eyes. He couldn't feel the usual electrifying hatred.

_Ha, ha, I think I cracked._

"And finally, Sora and Selphie."

The teacher ordered each student to switch seats and sit next to their partner, for she was giving them time to start on their project in class from the "kindness of her heart." Roxas just wanted to make her shut up already.

Roxas slouched onto his seat as Olette tentatively walked over to the side of his desk.

"Hi, Roxas Wataya. My name is Olette Takahashi."

"Um, you're kinda in my class. I already know what your name is."

Olette nodded.

"Yep, that's why we're partners, too." Olette flashed one of her rare smiles and quickly went back to counting something in her head.

Roxas stared at her for a moment, then shook his head as he straightened up in his seat when the teacher walked by, scrutinizing everybody with her hawk-like eyes.

"Anyway, what are we supposed to be doing?" Roxas asked.

Olette looked over Roxas with her large, emerald eyes.

"We are in an English class. That means we _must_ be doing something that has to do with English," she enunciated each word with abnormal accuracy. She repeated this to herself three times, avoiding Roxas's gaze.

"Weird," Roxas mumbled.

Sora turned from his seat and glanced back at his cousin. He smirked when he realized that Roxas was plain tuckered out to be mad at Olette for no reason anymore. Shaking his head, he turned back to Selphie and jotted down the ideas she was spilling on a piece of notebook paper.

"Here, let me help you before you hurt yourself," Roxas offered.

He grabbed the sheet of paper the teacher had swiftly passed out and scanned the list. Olette slowly peered over his shoulder, her eyes blank.

"I've read all of those precisely three times each," she mumbled.

Roxas's eyes widened and stared at her.

"What?! Why the heck would you do that?"

"Well, I felt like I forgot the stories, so I had to read them over and stuff…" Olette trailed off and was soon in her own world of counting to herself.

"Olette? What grade do you have in this class?"

The blonde was surprised when she said, "A seventy-five point two percent."

Olette faced Roxas. "I never finish any of her tests. English literature…" she sighed, "all the multiple choice questions make sense and fit. It's so hard to choose. And her essay questions require at least a two page response."

"You are one sad, little girl," Roxas mumbled.

He scanned through the list again.

Most of them were written by Shakespeare, and Roxas was pretty sure nobody understood what he said half the time in his plays. The blonde skipped the classic as well; they were too mushy for his taste.

His eyes finally landed on _Fahrenheit 451, _written by Ray Bradbury. It seemed pretty interesting.

"Olette, let's do _Fahrenheit 451_, 'k?"

The girl nodded. Roxas just noticed that she had a notebook with her and was writing down every word he was saying. He stared at her.

"Do you always do this?"

Olette scrawled _"Do you always do this?" _on her notebook before answering.

"Only when it's important," she said flatly.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bell finally rang. Olette was out before the others could crush her while Roxas stayed behind for Sora.

"So, how's your partner?" Sora asked, trying to hide the fact that he was teasing him.

Roxas rolled his blue orbs and stared down at the floor.

"She's so _weird_," he replied, "and hopeless."

Sora raised his brow. "Oh?"

"It's like, she's _obsessed_ with everything she does. I don't understand it. Do you think it's some kind of disease?"

Roxas's cousin shrugged.

"Who knows? But that's not for you to worry about, Roxas. You hate her, remember?"

The blonde looked taken aback.

"I never said that…"

It sounded more like "Did I really say that?"

Roxas shook his head as he heard the familiar voice counting invisible numbers behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

O C D

**But she couldn't stop.**

two

**Warning: Extreme OOCness.**

»o«

"Olette? Is that you dear?"

The old woman wiped her wrinkled hands on her apron and slowly peered out of her kitchen, her clear, warm, emerald eyes resting on the opening door. A comfortable smile adorned her lips, as if it was merely another wrinkle on her soft face.

"Five, six, seven, yes Grandma, eight, nine..."

Olette's grandmother's smile slightly fell as she watched her granddaughter climb the stairs, still breathing number after number. When was this going to end?

Shaking her head with disappointment, she went back to preparing her small family's dinner.

As soon as she reached thirty-two, Olette was standing in front of her door. She rubbed her gloved hands on her ironed skirt and turned the knob with the tips of her finger, trying to avoid as much contact with it as possible. As the door swung from its hinges, she started to count from one again as she crossed the threshold.

The girl shrugged out of her backpack, coat and pulled off her sweater. Her green eyes darted across the room, inspecting every detail. She scanned the bookshelf leaning against the wall, its books nestling in its dusted shelves.

"A, b, c, d..." she started.

It was not until Olette had reorganized her two hundred plus books and her desk until she removed Fahrenheit 451 from her "10th Grade Required Reading" section of the bookshelf and sat on her sparkling desk.

Letting out a sigh, she carefully opened the book and started to read the title page.

»o«

"So, how is it with you and Selphie?"

Roxas threw a handful of popcorn in his mouth, his eyes still glued to the television.

"She...talks a lot," Sora replied.

The blond laughed, grabbing the coke away from Sora.

"Still hitting on that new girl? What was her name, Kyra Narumi?" he asked as he chugged down the sticky, dark liquid.

"It's Kairi Narumi," the brunette snapped.

"Ok, ok! Sheesh. Talk about possessive."

"Psh, you're just jealous 'cause you're stuck with that clock, huh?"

He was referring to Olette Takahashi, the girl who always counted to herself.

Roxas rolled his eyes, moaning.

"Please don't remind me."

Sora ignored his words and pressed on.

"She's gonna be stuck on you for the next few weeks asking about the project, Roxas."

"I know, I know. I've heard from others, ok?"

"So you better start reading that book of yours, cousin," Sora said as he snatched both the bowl of popcorn and coke from Roxas.

Rolling his eyes again, the blond got off the couch, grabbed his backpack, and headed for the door.

"Guess I'll see ya later."

Sora nodded.

"Bye."

Shoulders sagging and head bowed down, Roxas walked towards his house across the street. Sometimes he wondered why he couldn't just live with his cousin.

"Stupid Olette, stupid project, stupid school..." he mumbled.

By the time he had eaten dinner, finished homework and watched a bit more television, it was too late to start on the project.

"Too late to start," Roxas said happily as he pushed aside his broken guitar in order to crawl into his bed.

He instantly fell asleep with a smile slapped across his face.

»o«

"Oh."

"Yeah. Sorry," Roxas said flatly.

Olette shook her head, her loose brown locks flying in all directions.

"It's ok. You can just start today, right?"

"Sure," Roxas said.

The brunette didn't look convinced.

"I promise," Roxas reassured her.

"Ok," Olette said softly, looking down at her thumbs.

She had stayed up all night reading and annotating the book. Her partner told her that he didn't even start reading it.

She eyed her partner, who was leaning back on his chair and staring at the clock with a bored expression on his face.

Disappointed, Olette took out her notes and started to read through them. They were supposed to make a presentation on the book.

And the first person was going to present after break.

Break was only two weeks long.

And today was the last day before winter break.

Olette mentally broke it down.

"Roxas, when can we meet?"

The blond nearly fell out of his chair as he tore his eyes away from the clock.

"What?!"

"When can we meet?" Olette repeated.

Roxas stared at the girl for a while, then his mouth made the shape of an O.

"Ooh, you mean for the project?"

Olette nodded.

"Urm, ierno. You think we need to meet? I mean, it's just a presentation right? We can just split up the work right now and work on it during break."

The brunette looked down at her organizer, tapping the pen against the desk, a horrible habit she had since she was little.

"But we won't be prepared for the presentation."

"Who cares? It's not like we won't know anything. We're doing a PowerPoint, right? We can each take a slide. That easy."

"I don't know..."

Losing his patience, the blond sat up on his chair and banged his fist on the desk.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you so obsessed about this thing? Get this straight; it's a stupid presentation that's worth only fifty points. FIFTY."

Shocked by Roxas's sudden outburst, Olette stopped tapping the pen against the side of her desk and looked down at her hands.

"I-I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Rolling his eyes, Roxas slumped back on his seat, his eyes narrowed with frustration.

The girl was seriously getting on his nerves.

»o«

"Hey, wait up!"

Roxas slowed down to a stop and waited for his cousin to catch up.

"Hi," Roxas greeted.

"Hey."

The two walked silently side by side through the snow, their breaths creating small, miniature fogs in the winter air.

"Selphie's coming over to my house tomorrow, so you can't come over," Sora said.

Roxas immediately felt a pang of guilt tugging at his chest.

"O-oh, it's ok. I have to work on my presentation too," Roxas replied.

Sora raised a brow.

"Olette's coming over?"

Roxas stuffed his glove-less hands in his pockets and shrugged, his brows furrowed. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.

"Whatta ya mean?" Sora pressed on.

"No, she's not coming," the blond replied.

"What?!"

Roxas winced.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what?' Dude, this presentation is going to be our last project before the semester is over! It's like, the most important assignment in the world right now! And what, you two aren't even rehearsing or anything? My gosh, you are so screwed, man."

Roxas scowled as he kicked a rock lying helplessly in the white snow.

That was him, the big mouthed idiot. Why did he blow Olette off in the first place?

"Man, what am I going to do? I don't even have her number."

Sora's eyes widened.

"My gosh, what's wrong with you? Have you guys talked about this at all?"

Roxas frowned and glared at his cousin.

"Why are you so mad about this? It's not even any of your business."

"Well, yeah. But you're my cousin and I actually _care_ about you," Sora retorted.

"Whatever," Roxas mumbled.

He turned to the left on the forked road and stomped towards his house.

"See ya," Sora called after him.

Roxas ignored him and slammed the door shut.

"Honey, don't slam the door like that."

"Sorry," Roxax mumbled as he ran up the stairs.

He bursted into his room and dumped his coat and backpack onto his bed. Letting out a big sigh, he ran a hand through his cold locks and shut his eyes, breathing deeply.

As he replayed his conversation with Olette, he realized that he was a bit harsh. Maybe he should've offered to meet at the library during the break...

Shaking his head, he sat on the corner of his bed and fell back onto his things.

He would start worrying tomorrow.

I'm really sorry about the short chapter! I'll try making it longer next time.

Please review, thank you!

Oh, and if you're interested in challenges, check out my profile!


	3. Chapter 3

O C D

**He didn't care.**

three

**Warning:****May seem to have been written during the state of extreme boredom. It's also very short.**

»o«

"I'll get it."

The fragile old woman turned around and smiled, which blended in with the wrinkles nestling comfortably in her face.

She gave a small nod and watched her only granddaughter swing open the door.

It was Roxas.

"Oh good, you found it."

Olette stepped aside and allowed the blond to come in. The snow covering his shoulders and hair immediately melted as the warm heat engulfed him. He groaned and ran a hand through his damp dirty yellow locks.

"Well duh, I found it," Roxas scoffed as he shrugged off his jacket. The brunette had been calling him every five seconds to make sure that he was on the right street at the right town in the right state.

"I still don't know how you got my number."

The two teenagers were now climbing the stairs. Olette was counting her steps.

"Sora gave it to me," Olette replied between six and seven. She opened her door and cautiously stepped inside. The look she had on was almost tied with the one the bank robber held at court last week. Roxas stared.

"Uh, is this your room?"

Olette nodded. Now she was a soldier at a battlefield. She silently placed one foot in front of the other, looking this way and that. She was still counting. What would've taken less than a minute stretched to five as she and Roxas finally settled down in front of the wooden desk.

It took another five minutes for someone to start.

Surprisingly, it was Roxas.

"Sooooo…" Roxas stretched out the 'o' as long as his lungs allowed him.

"What book are we doing again?"

»o«

It was a bright Sunday evening, which was quite strange. The sun seemed to linger around longer than usual, just so that the two could finish before it had to rise again the next morning, also known as "Monday."

Yes, Monday. The day students dread, for it is the first of five long, torturous days that require them to pull themselves up, pitter-patter across the cold icy floor, splash even colder water on their faces, pull on freezing clothes, and step out into the frozen globe where they head towards a tiny building called "school." This was where they learned their 123's and ABCs along with a few other things that were apparently important for one to survive in this cruel world.

Along with all these nasty things, Monday had another meaning for the two teenagers that evening.

Due date.

Two weeks had flown by and started to fall a few hours ago. It had been flying on auto-pilot until Sora finally managed to find Olette's number and give her his cousin's. Now Olette and Roxas were the pilots, and everybody (or everything) on the plane depended on them.

The piece of paper that listed all the requirements stared back at the two with its glaring fine, black print.

The two of them had to read the novel, discuss it, reflect on what they discussed, make a poster that summarized the novel, discussion, and reflections, and make a PowerPoint in order to share with the class what they summarized for the novel, discussion, and reflections.

Seemed easy enough.

That was what Roxas thought until the clock downstairs struck ten and the water cups were empty again.

"Olette."

The careful typing stopped and the brunette turned in her chair.

"Why is Guy capitalized?"

"Because Guy is Guy Montag's name, and names are usually always capitalized."

"Oh…but I thought Montag was his first name."

"No, no, no. Montag is his surname."

"How come the book calls him by his last name?" Roxas pressed on, irritated.

"Well, we call authors by their last names when we write about them…"

"Maybe the writer spent some time in Japan," Roxas decided. "Yeah, that must be it."

Olette turned back to her desk and put a check mark next to "Discuss the conflicts, symbols, and characters of the novel."

A few more keyboard-typing and page-turning went by for at least an hour.

"Olette?"

Again, the typing stopped and the girl turned in her chair.

"Yes?"

"Why is the Mechanical Hound capitalized?"

To make a long story short, the plane crashed.

»o«

"Hey, where's your poster?"

Roxas scowled and glared at Sora as he half-skipped towards his desk.

"Leave me alone."

Sora frowned. He let out an exasperated sigh and squeezed half of his bottom on Roxas's chair.

"Don't tell me. You guys didn't finish, right?"

Roxas's scowl grew uglier and the grip on his hair grew tighter as his knuckles turned white.

"It wasn't my fault, okay?!" he burst.

Sora lifted his hands as if he were caught drinking and driving.

"I never said it was your fault."

"But it's OBVIOUSLY not Olette's fault either! Gah, I HATE this. I have NOBODY to blame. Nobody!"

"Shut up, Roxas," someone said from the back.

Roxas threw a few of his stronger bombs from his vocabulary until the door to the classroom opened.

A stout, old lady, who had as many beads as her age clinging around her wobbly neck, waddled in. She was definitely not the tenth grade English teacher.

"Good morning, class," she croaked. "I hope you all had a holly jolly holiday."

Somebody coughed.

"You teacher is apparently ill and won't be back until next week. I think she sounded fine over the phone, so she's probably trying to find out who the real father is for her baby."

There was no cough this time, but definitely a lot of stares.

Little Timmy raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Is our teacher pregnant?" he squeaked.

The substitute gasped.

"Well, how in the world should I know that? That was a very inappropriate question to ask! Detention!"

»o«

So basically, they had a free period while poor Timmy had to listen to the substitute's stories about her long lost cousins and the stalker that lived right by her. Everybody else was sighing in relief as they looked down on their last-minute posters and shuffled through their even last-er-minute scribbled notes for the presentation. Sora had left Roxas and gone back to Selphie, which made the blond feel strangely hopeless. He saw the walking clock come near him from the corner of his eye.

He groaned as she pulled out a chair from the empty desk near him and sat down.

"You need to finish reading in order for us to start this project, Roxas."

"No, screw you. I don't have to finish in order for us this start this project, Olette. Heck, I don't even care if I fail this class or not and I don't even care if I'm bringing you down with me, okay? You're so freakin' annoying. Why do you count to yourself anyway? Do you think the world's going to explode or something if you stop counting? Oh no! The sky is falling! Quick, Olette, quick! Start counting your freakin' steps! Ahh! Just shut up and leave me alone."

Well, that's what he wanted to say.

"Okay," the blond replied as he pulled out a dog-eared book from his backpack.

»o«

Everybody was groaning and complaining as they headed towards the gym in their P.E. clothes, which were just perfect for a summer day.

They were starting flag football. Oh, the joy, the thrill! Chucking an oblong shaped ball at each other and trying to pull the reds and yellows! Running through millions of sharp knives as they pierced your skin with their cold, cold, VERY cold, hands! Watching your breath tumble out of your lips as wispy, white, miniature clouds and then disappear to join the rest of the cold world! The joy!

"It's so fuckin' cold."

"Watch the language," Kairi snapped.

"Sorry."

Roxas and his team were clipping on their flags, which were red, and shivering as they waited for somebody to go get the ball.

The blond looked around at his team. There was Kairi, Timmy, a random guy he didn't know, Pence and the girl he used to like in kindergarten. In his professional opinion, he had one crappy team.

"Hey, what's your name?" Roxas asked the random guy he didn't know.

"Tidus," he answered.

Roxas nodded. The six of them shivered for another minute. They were supposed to be practicing how to throw and catch the ball. The other teams had already started. Roxas almost forgot what they were doing.

"Oh yeah, where the heck is our ball? What's taking so long?"

"Fifty-seven, fifty-eight…"

Roxas grimaced and hung his head.

"Hey, Olette!" Kairi chirped.

_Oh yeah, there's seven in each team._

»o«


	4. Chapter 4

O C D

"**1, 2, 3…"**

Four

**Warning: The writer has no medical knowledge. **

»o«

"Sorry I took so long. All of them were shaped quite strange," Olette said as she placed the football gingerly on the wet grass.

Roxas scowled and threw his hands in the air.

"Are you stupid? Do you not know that all footballs are weirdly shaped?"

"Don't be so mean, Roxas!" Kairi snapped. "And tie your shoe; it's annoying to see your shoelaces get wet and dirty."

The team had gotten into a poorly made circle while Tidus volunteered to dry the football Olette had placed on the ground.

"It's cold today," Olette said through clenched teeth.

The others were too cold to nod in reply.

"I don't know why we're out here. The teacher's a freakin' idiot. I mean, we played inside the gym for the first few months of school when it was warmer," Roxas growled.

He turned to Olette.

"And you had to waste so much freakin' time getting us a damn ball. Why the hell do you not know what a football looks like? Did you never play sports before or something? And why-oh please- do you _always _count to your-"

He found himself stumbling towards the ground a few gasps later. The football was tottering away from him.

"Stop complaining."

The crease between his eyebrows deepened as he rubbed the side where Tidus had hit him with the ball.

His ears became a bright red as he got on his feet and walked over to the football. He picked it up, not bothering to wipe off the wet grass and mud from it. He threw it vertically into the air a couple times, and finally wrapped his fingers around the laces.

"Olette," he called as soon as the ball left his hand.

The throw was clean and beautiful, spiraling neatly through the air. All it needed was a nice landing, and it would've been perfect.

Unfortunately, the football's performance ended abruptly on Olette's face.

"Oh, my gosh! Olette, are you okay?"

Kairi and the rest rushed over to the unconscious brunette.

"She's bleeding. She's bleeding a lot."

It felt great to throw with all his strength at the person he hated the most at the moment. That throw carried so much passionate anger that it would've brought anyone to tears. Being humiliated by Tidus helped give him a boost too.

Then why was that chill of guilt filling up his lungs and the back of his neck?

Before he knew it, he was also by Olette's side.

The ball had hit her eye, which was slowly swelling and turning into a nasty shade of green, and her nose. Her nose didn't seem broken, but blood was spilling out of it. The entire left side of her face was a mess. On top of that, she had fallen into the mud puddle their teacher warned them about.

"Kairi, go get the teacher," Tidus ordered.

Kairi nodded and quickly ran off.

Tidus slid his fingers under Olette's neck and put his other hand on the back of her head. He slowly lifted her head and used his lap to make a pillow for her.

"She would drown in her own blood if she just lies there," Tidus explained.

The girl Roxas used to like sat next to Tidus and started to wipe off the mud and grass on Olette's face. Timmy took off his hoodie and covered Olette's body with it while Pence wiped the dirty ball on his shirt while he watched from a distance. None of them were shivering from the cold anymore. Only the shouts from the other teams accompanied their silence.

And the blond kneeling a few feet away felt horrible.

He couldn't figure out why he had done that.

The guilt had finally settled in every single corner of his body. Nobody on his team blamed him because they didn't see it as his fault. His head throbbed from the guilt he felt and he couldn't think of any excuse.

He had hurt her on purpose. He didn't deny it.

"Damn it! Why isn't Kairi coming already?" Roxas shouted.

The others stared at Roxas as he pushed Tidus away and put his arms under Olette's legs and neck.

"I'm going to the doctor myself." 

He easily lifted Olette and walked as fast as his body allowed him towards the doctor.

"Don't follow me," he snapped when Tidus got on his feet.

Roxas didn't want them to see the guilt in his face.

Breathing hard, Roxas walked faster and faster towards the doctor's office. His chest ached and he was sweating like a pig in the middle of winter, but he didn't even feel Olette's weight as he soon broke into a run.

Why was the office so far away? He started to pick up more speed.

At that moment of his life, Roxas wished that he had listened to Kairi five minutes ago.

He tripped on his shoelaces and came crashing down on the cement floor. Luckily, Olette wasn't hurt, but now his knees were bloody and his right arm was screaming in pain.

Roxas got up again and managed to get Olette on his back.

After passing by a few more classrooms, he finally found the door to the doctor's office. Never in his life has he seen such a beautiful door.

"What happened to her?"

Roxas collapsed on a chair after putting Olette on a clean, white bed.

"I-I hit her with a ball," he said, panting.

"Wash your hands."

Roxas obeyed and washed his bloody, muddy hands under the warm tap. His right elbow was throbbing and sending fire up and down his arm. After he finished drying his hands, the doctor threw a warm, wet towel at him.

"Get the blood off her face. I'm going to go get some bandages and ice."

"Get me some water, too!" Roxas called out before the doctor left the room.

The towel felt nice and warm in his hands as he carefully started to wipe the blood off Olette's face. The white towel slowly turned pink, and then darker when he cleaned the mud off of Olette's nose. It wasn't until he noticed that the entire backside of Olette was muddy when he found out that his clothes were dirty as well.

"Roxas."

The blond turned and caught the water bottle before it hit his face. The guilt started to throb through his veins again.

Olette couldn't have caught that ball even if she took steroids every morning.

"Thanks, Cloud."

The doctor walked to Olette and took the dirty towel from Roxas.

"She looks like she came back from a war," Cloud said as he felt Olette's nose.

"You almost broke her nose," he said calmly as he got another wet cloth and cleaned Olette's face one more time.

"And her eyelid is going to be so puffed up that she won't be able to see properly for a week or two."

"Please stop rubbing it in."

"And she's going to catch a cold if she doesn't get out of her clothes. They're filthy and wet."

Cloud started to lift Olette's shirt. Roxas's eyes widened in shock.

"Hey! You can't do that!" 

"I'm the school doctor. Of course I can. I need to save this girl's life right now."

"Come on, it's not like her life is in danger. Get one of the girls to do it for her. You're a guy. You can go to jail like that."

Cloud ignored him and continued to strip Olette. Roxas screamed when the doctor pulled Olette's P.E. shirt over her head and started to strangle the man.

"Calm down, Roxas! She has an undershirt underneath. I'm not a pervert."

Convinced after seeing that Olette had a tank top underneath her shirt, Roxas calmed down and sat on his seat again.

"Only the top half of her body landed in the mud, so we won't have to change her pants," Cloud said reassuringly when Roxas glared at him when he took off Olette's shoes.

Cloud got a white sheet and covered Olette.

"She's not unconscious anymore, but she's sleeping. She should wake up in a couple hours." 

"She's okay, right?" Roxas asked.

"She'll be fine."

The blond took a deep breath and then buried his face in his hands.

"It's all my fault. I threw the ball at her on purpose, you know…"

Cloud didn't reply as he gathered the dirty towels and threw them in a basket, but Roxas knew he was listening. He went on.

"She just gets me so mad with all her counting and repeating. I don't even know why it gets me mad. I guess it's 'cause I'm so short-tempered and get annoyed easily. I usually depend on excuses to get away with things. You know, find other people to blame and throw the responsibility off my shoulders. But this…I don't have an excuse. I threw it on purpose and I know that I did. I actually felt _good _when I threw it at her."

Roxas sniffled and drank heavily from the water bottle.

"And now, I don't know how I'm going to apologize to her."

Cloud came towards him and sat on the chair facing Roxas. He placed a comforting hand on his shaking shoulders.

"Look at me."

Roxas did.

"You have some guts to admit something like that. And you were a jerk to throw a ball like that at a girl. But you saved her, didn't you? You brought her here. It's not like you hit her and ran off. Apologizing will be hard, but you better not lay it off. It's going to get harder and harder to apologize later on. Of course, the question "why" will be followed after she finds out that you threw it at her on purpose. And then you'll have to tell her that you hate her and then she'll probably be hurt and then avoid you forever, but that's okay."

Roxas scowled and shrugged off Cloud's hand.

"Oh, shut up. I'll do whatever I can do."

Cloud smirked and leaned forward on his chair.

"Now let's take a look at you."

Roxas raised a brow.

"What do you mean?" 

Cloud took Roxas's leg and started to wash the wound with alcohol. He applied some ointment on it and stuck a gigantic bandage on his knee.

"Oww, oww! Hey, easy!"

"Now the other one." 

Roxas lifted his other leg and didn't scream out in pain this time.

After tending to Roxas's legs, he carefully took Roxas's right arm and felt around his elbow. Roxas bit his bottom lip.

"You broke your arm. Amazing how far you got."

"I probably broke it when I fell a few yards away from your office."

Cloud washed Roxas's right arm, swiftly straightened out the bone, and then started to wrap it with padding.

"You'll need to get a cast," he said. He was now wrapping Roxas's arm with plaster.

Before Roxas was able to protest or give the doctor permission to trap his arm in a hard, unbreakable cage, he had a cast.

"Go back to your class now; I'll write a note for your teacher."

The blond took the slip Cloud wrote for him in his fine writing, looked at Olette's still figure one more time, and left the office.

»o«

"Whoa, what happened to you? You didn't have that this morning."

Roxas made room for Sora to sit. There were a lot more people sitting around him than usual today. His white cast was already filled with colorful sharpie screaming GET WELL SOON, YOU LOSER and HAHA, IT'S YOUR RIGHT ARM. Everybody in school knew about the incident now, and it was barely lunchtime.

"You already know what happened," Roxas said grumpily as he took a bite out of his burger.

Sora stuck his straw into his juice and started to open up his burrito.

"How's Olette?"

"Cloud says she's fine."

"When is he moving back in?"

"Aren't we talking about Olette right now?"

Sora ignored him and pressed on.

"Auntie's pretty mad, isn't she? Man, I miss Cloud." 

"He's the freakin' school doctor; you can see him every day if you want."

"Hey, isn't that Olette?"

Roxas looked up.

"She's walking towards you."

The blond didn't say anything as he stopped chewing on his food. He patiently watched the girl get closer and closer to him.

Olette faced him and gave a small smile. Her eye had puffed up like Cloud said it would and her almost-broken-nose looked a bit puffy, too.

"Thank you for saving me, Roxas," Olette said.


	5. Chapter 5

O C D

**He didn't make her stop.**

Five

**Warning: ****This is bad.**

»o«

She looked pathetic.

Her chestnut hair, which was usually flawless, fell over her shoulders like tangled vines, and her obvious attempt at hiding her bruised eye with bangs was a failure. It was rather strange to see her so mangled like this, but it was even stranger to see her smile. It didn't involve pearly whites, radiant sunshine, or an angelic chorus, but it did have a pair of perfect dimples. It was also the first smile she had ever given in front of such a large audience.

And he never felt so guilty in his life.

It wasn't until Sora gave him a hard nudge Roxas realized that his burger had slipped out of his hands.

Not that he minded.

"Say something," Sora mumbled. The chattering and bickering had slowed down to a curious mush of murmurs as each pair of eyes focused on the blond who had dropped his burger.

That, he definitely minded.

The heat that had been rising in his cheeks was now rushing through his veins, pulsing in his ears, and turning his entire face crimson. Visions of the football spiraling beautifully in the air and then plunging into Olette's face flashed before his eyes as he nervously wetted his dry lips. He swallowed once, twice, and then finally managed to get his voice past his throat.

"It was nothing," he mumbled.

As if those were the magic words, people were allowed to talk again and students began to nudge and tease.

"Aww, little Roxas is a little hero."

"You were able to go the distance! The distance! You're Hercules!"

"Shut up, that made no sense."

The flood of people swallowed Olette whole without effort. Roxas stood up to dig her out, but found himself back on the bench when Sora pulled him down with his arm hooked around his neck.

"Wow, you actually did something good today."

"Shut up," he said without much enthusiasm. His eyes were still flicking across the cafeteria, passing by each face and lingering a bit on every girl with brown, wavy hair. But none of them were counting their steps.

Sora laughed and stuffed the rest of the half-eaten burger into his cousin's mouth.

»o«

"I'm sorry that your arm has to be that way."

Roxas dropped the book he was balancing in his one good hand and nearly screamed. The soft voice would never have been heard if Olette wasn't speaking right into his ear.

Olette scrambled to the floor, picked up the book, wiped it with a tissue Roxas didn't see her holding before, and handed the detested math book back to its owner. She then took out a hand-sanitizer and squirted a generous amount of the clear liquid on the palm of her hand. The girl did all this in less than five seconds.

"It was my fault for not catching the ball when you threw it towards me," she continued while thoughtfully rubbing her hands together. "You even called my name to catch my attention. If I had not fallen, you would not have gotten hurt while transporting me to the doctor's office."

Roxas fingered the frayed edges of his trigonometry book cover and decided to rest his eyes on his untied shoes.

Why was he being such a soft-hearted wimp? So what if she never finds out that he threw that stupid ball on purpose? It wasn't like his relationship with this girl mattered anyway.

Roxas's face suddenly hardened and the teen slammed his locker shut.

"I'll forgive you if you can just drop this whole thing. I have to get to class."

Roxas pushed Olette aside and ignored the pang of guilt he felt when he saw the confused hurt in those green eyes.

The entire class cheered when Roxas walked into the last period of the day.

"Our hero!" Sora shouted the loudest.

Roxas arched an eyebrow as he uncertainly slid into his seat.

"What are you doing in here? Aren't you supposed to be in geometry?"

The brunet grinned and leaned back on his chair.

"I've been passing all my tests with flying colors. I showed those freshmen what sophomores are all about."

More people cheered at this.

"And so the teacher gave me an upgrade."

"Sora Wataya!"

The trigonometric teacher marched in and rapped his ruler on his desk.

"Oh shoot," he cursed as he scrambled off his desk and ran out the room.

Roxas let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. He started dozing off as soon as the teacher opened his mouth and started listing formula after formula.

The blond never really liked numbers anyway.

»o«

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6," Olette counted out loud.

"Today is Monday, and this project was postponed to next Monday, so we have this Monday, this Tuesday, this Wednesday, this Thursday, this Friday, this Saturday, and next Sunday to revise our work. That is six days."

Olette turned around from her desk and thumb tacked a modified calendar onto her bulletin board.

"We will use this to guide us."

Roxas was sitting on the Olette's bedroom floor with his head in his hands. Either Olette had forgotten or had chosen to ignore the events that occurred earlier that day, for here he was in her house again with the walking clock narrating every minute detail of her life.

"Today, you will finish reading the book and I will start working on our PowerPoint."

"Can't I just finish reading at my own house?"

Olette shook her head.

"We will not rest until we have finished our discussions, and we cannot have discussions without having read the book. So please, do read."

"Okay, I've had enough. I can't _stand _your constant counting and organizing and talking! If you want me to finish reading this damn book, you'll have to stop being so compulsive!"

"I don't understand. I'm merely being careful. Safety is extremely important when it comes to surviving, and organization and care are the keys to safety. Don't you want to be safe—"

"Shut up," Roxas interrupted. "There is a difference between being safe and precise, and compulsive and irritating."

"I honestly don't think I can be your partner," Roxas said. He couldn't believe he actually felt sorry for this girl a few hours ago.

For once, Olette was silent as she looked down at her notebook. She took out a white-out and glossed it over one of the words, only to rewrite the same exact word a few millimeters shifted over.

"It's not something I can control, Roxas," she replied softly after putting the white-out bottle aside. "I get nervous and paranoid when I don't go through these processes. There are accidents waiting to happen at every corner, every turn. They're so easy to prevent, yet they jump at you every day because we're not careful."

"That's called life, Olette," Roxas answered with exasperation.

"But not when that accident causes a death." Olette immediately said.

Roxas blinked, taken aback. Olette's usual flat monotone voice was filled with unusually thick emotion.

"You wouldn't call death life, Roxas," the brunette went on.

The truth was that Olette's parents were no longer living.

_Murder. _Murder was the first thought that came to mind as Olette came home from school. Black and white cars parked all around her lawn, gate and fence laced with bright yellow caution tapes, strangers walking in and out of the open door. They said the house wasn't broken into. They said the suspect left no trace at all. They said there were two bodies in the upper room.

_Blood. _Blood stained all over the sheets and wall, contrasting so much with the cream-colored wallpaper. They said they were gunshot wounds. In the chest, the head, the heart.

Nothing was stolen, nothing was disturbed.

Nobody knew why.

"My parents were killed in an accident," Olette said softly.

She was speaking the truth.

If only she had woken up 15 seconds earlier, if only she decided not to skip breakfast, if only she remembered to lock the door behind her, if only she put her cell phone on sound. Then maybe, just maybe, she would've been able to see the man as she rushed out, be the first one to be shot as she drowned down her morning cereal, prevent him from intruding at all, or would've answered the last call from her mother.

If she had done one of those things, maybe her parents would be sitting downstairs reading the newspaper or sipping a cup of hot coffee. Her room wouldn't be dustless, her books wouldn't be alphabetized, and her steps would go by uncounted.

She wouldn't be so paranoid.

"Olette, you're crying."

The brunette blinked up.

Roxas sheepishly handed her the tissue box that was sitting on her desk.

Olette the offered tissue and blew her nose.

"I'm sorry," Roxas said after a while.

"We learn from our mistakes," Olette replied softly.

Roxas scratched the back of his head, feeling extremely guilty and uncomfortable. Finally, he dug through his backpack and pulled out his copy of _Fahrenheit 451._

"I think I can finish this up in an hour. You go ahead and start on your PowerPoint."

Olette smiled.


End file.
